Birmingham murder suspect was arrested and released by Moroccan police - because they did not know he was a wanted man

Man on the run was held just five days after family-of-four were killed and then freed to become a fugitive for 14 months

Anxiang Du passes through Birmingham New Street station following the death of the Ding family

Murder suspect Anxiang Du was arrested by Moroccan police just five days after a family-of-four were slain – but they let him go because they did not know he was wanted in Britain.

Birmingham businessman Du, 53, was finally arrested on suspicion of murdering the Ding family in July after
14 months on the run.

A BBC investigation on the Inside Out program has revealed that he was originally captured by police in the city of Oujda near the Algerian border in May last year.

Police suspected he was an illegal immigrant and Du, who used the fake name Li Ming, claimed he was from Taiwan.

Moroccan
police let him go because they could not determine his identity or nationality. At the time British detectives had no idea Du, who worked at a Chinese herbal medicine shop in Paradise Forum. was abroad and his photo had not been issued to Interpol.

Five
days before the arrest, on April 29 2011, Jeff Ding, his wife Helen, and their two daughters 18-year-old Xing and Alice, 12, were all stabbed
to death in Northampton.

Jifeng Ding with his wife Helen and daughters Xing and Alice

Northamptonshire
Police launched a huge investigation, eventually focusing their attentions on Morocco shortly before Du was captured there.

When
police focused their attentions on Morocco, it was suggested that Du of
Witnell Road, Daimler Green, Coventry may have set up a herbal medicine
practice there.

But in reality he was living in a half-built block of flats in the Beni Makada suburb of Tangier.

Police say he slept in a makeshift bed made with bricks and wooden planks and used a small gas burner to cook his meals.

Du was captured when the owner of the building site saw his picture in a local newspaper and called the police.

El Yazaji Adil said: “When I saw his photo I was shocked. I know this face. Oh, he’s the Chinese person with my workers there.”

When Du was captured, he was interviewed by the same Moroccan police chief who spoke to him 14 months ago in Oujda.

Abdallah Bellahfid recognised him immediately and this time knew Mr Du was wanted by British detectives.

Du is believed to have told the police: “I am innocent. I am not the killer."